Improvement in life-rafts



tied fiitttw JOHN RIDER, OF

NEW YORK, N. Y;

Letters Patent No. 100,191, dated February 22, 1870.

IMPROVEMENT IN LIPE-RAFTS.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making; pail: of the same.

Be it known that I, J OHN RIDER, of the city, connty, and State of New York, have inventedcertain Improvements in the Construction of Life-Rafts, or Balsas and that the following is a clear and correct description thereof, reference being bad to the annexed drawings, of which Figure 1 is a plan view.

Figures 2, 3, and 4 are vertical cross-sections.

Figure 5 represents a modification of the fastenings;

My inventionhas reference to those life-rafts which are constructed of a number of air-bags of aoylindrical shape, when inflated with air, and made of Indiarnbber cloth.

Heretofore, these bags or cylinderswere provided with flanges on opposite sides, whichcontained eyelets for the purpose of lacing the cylinders together; an unreliable fastening, as the eyelets and the flanges themselveswere liable to tear, and in order to build a deck it was necessary to place a wooden frame-work upon the cylinders. A raft so constructed, in being thrown overboard, was not certain to be right side up in the water.

My improvements are designed to obviate these difiiculties, and form a raft thatcannnot be injured, is easy to be put together, and will always be rightside up when thrown from the deck of a vessel into the water, as will be seen from the following description. I surround each cylinder with two or more strong hoops, a, made of wood or other elastic material, each hoop having at opposite points two brackets, 12, fastened thereto, and each bracket has a female thread cut therein,,into which bars a can be screwed.

These bars 0 are also made'of wood or other elastic material, and are provided with a male screw at each end, and a slot, (1, and screw into the brackets l) to hold each pair of hoops together. Two pairs of hoops or more thus combined and held together, would form a fastening for a raft, such as shown in fig. 1, consisting of two cylinders, the deck being constructed of boards, a, which are to be inserted into the slots of the cross-bar .c, and secured in their proper position by lacing, as shown at f, fig. 1, or otherwise.

In order to make a raft consisting of more than two cylinders, more cross-bars c and hoops to are to'be added to the original pairs, the decks of the rafts being between the cylinders, and on line with their centers. It is immaterialwhich side=up the apparatus may happen to be on the water, and the cylinders, when in- -flated with air to their full compass, will beheld in position most efi'ectually by the hoops which encircle the said cylinders.

Another improvement consists'in the arrangement of a board; k, of about the length of the cylinders, which can be aflixed to the hoops (1. inc. radiating position, by loops h, which are passed through between the hoops and the'surface of the bags or cylinders, and surround the board It laterally, or by any other convenient fastening.

By means of these loops, the board can be placed in every desired position.

\Vhen placed in a vertical position on top of the bags, as shown in fig. 2, it may serve as the means to afiiit rowlocks thereto when oars are to be used.

When placed on the side of the bags, as in fig. 3, it-

will act as a guard to prevent the sea from washing over the raft, and when in a vertical position below the bags, as in fig. 4, it can he used as a keel for the raft, if desired.

The brackets of hthose oops which surrouud the outside cylinders are furnished each with a hole, in, as

seen in figs. 2, 3, and 4, in which a rope, or, can be fastened, running along theside of the raft, to give persons outside in the water a hold on the raft.

I do not limit my invention to the particular" constrnotion of the fastenings for holding the air-bags together, as the principle'involved therein can bee-arried out in various ways, and one modification I have shown in fig. 5, which represents the fastenings of a pair of air-bags made of continuous strips of wood or 2. the combination of the connecting-bars, the,

hoops, and the collapsible cylinders, substantially as described.

3. The adjustable bars k, in combination with the hoops, as set forth.

4. The slotted bar 0 in combination with the hoops a and slats 0, all substantially as described.

' JOHN RIDER. I [L. s.]

Witnesses:

Eow. GAVANAUGH, JOHN MURPHY. 

